Inquiry To Raise The Heat On Banks
Sydney Morning Herald
Thursday March 20, 2008
PRESSURE on banks to abolish exorbitant penalty fees is set to intensify during a six month Senate inquiry into the unpopular charges.
The Senate yesterday agreed to review legislation proposed by the Family First senator Steve Fielding to increase the powers of the corporate watchdog to crack down on excessive penalties and abolish particular types of fees, including cheque dishonour fees, which can charge account holders up to $50 if a cheque they try to deposit bounces due to no fault of their own.Senator Fielding said excessive penalty fees were "abhorrent" because they tended to penalise lower income earners.A spokeswoman for the consumer group Choice, Elissa Freeman, said disclosure of penalty fees was insufficient to protect consumers in cases where the size of the penalty was clearly out of line with the cost to the bank.
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